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The fate of a bill that seeks to reduce health disparities between Latinos and Mesoamerican Indians in California will be set next week, when members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee vote for or against moving it forward in the legislative process.
SB 435 by Long Beach Senator Lena Gonzalez would require the California Department of Health Care Services, the California Department of Health, the Department of Aging, and the Department of Health Care Information and Access to anonymously collect demographic information about the ethnic origin of Latinos and Native Americans.
It will require the collection and tabulation of data on important health-related outcomes, including disease rates, leading causes of death by demographic group, subcategories of the leading causes of death in California, and other relevant health information.
Currently, in California, systems and programs do not collect specific health information about the subgroups within the Latino community and the different Mesoamerican indigenous groups living in the state.
More than 500 indigenous languages are spoken in California, and some subgroups have special needs such as lack of access to reliable information and services in their language.
“We need to open our eyes to the diverse health needs of Latino groups in our state,” said Long Beach Sen. Lena González, the bill’s author.
“Latinos are almost 40% of the population in California, but we are not a monolith. Among indigenous and Latin American populations, in our state alone people speak 560 different languages and dialects.”.
He noted that studies have shown that Puerto Ricans have the highest prevalence of asthma compared to other Latino subgroups.
“This is the kind of thoughtful and inclusive data we need to create greater health equity and improve access to healthcare for all.”
That is why she said that she is the author of SB 435, the Latino and Indigenous Disparities Reduction Act; and so she urged her colleagues in the Assembly to support this bill as it moves toward a floor vote in the coming weeks.
If the measure leaves the suspense committee, it must be brought to a vote by the plenary Assembly. If approved, it will be sent to the desk of Governor Gavin Newsom.
SB 435 has the support of more than 60 non-profit organizations such as CHIRLA, CIELO, Altamed, Centro Legal TODEC, Western Center on Law and Poverty, Union de Guatemaltecos Inmigrantes, Children Now, Justice in Aging and many more.
In a letter of support, the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California (LCHC) said passing SB 435 is critical and necessary as a first step in addressing the disparities faced by these populations throughout the state.
“Specifically to collect and publish disaggregated data for each major Latino group, including, but not limited to, Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Nicaraguans, Costa Ricans, Panamanians, Belizeans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, and South Americans.”
But also of indigenous peoples such as Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Triquis, Mayas and Aztecs, and each of the main groups of Latin American indigenous languages, such as Zapotec, Chinanteco, K’iche, Nahuatl, Mixtec, Purépecha, Tzotzil”.
In the letter of support they are born to see that during the covid-19 pandemic, indigenous communities were unable to access timely and reliable information to receive vaccines in California and as a result suffered a greater number of deaths.
“Without disaggregated data, authorities and researchers must rely on less detailed information published by state agencies; or on local data that may be collected inconsistently.”